FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Greggers]

What's the feel from the non-SJU crowd on the Johnnie's recent string of title-contenders? Is it a result of the new coaching staff completely turning around the whole program and they're the #1 or #2 team in the conference every year, or did they just have a few absolute horses the last few years that are going to be hard to replace? It wasn't that long ago they finished 5th in my final MIAC ratings:

Now that SJU has recovered and is back in the 1 or 2 position the past few years, and likely to be #1 or #2 this year, I'd actually be more interested in hearing from the SJU crowd on what went wrong right at the end of the Gags era?  Did their recruiting (or lack of it) based on reputation just stop working with the current generation of athletes?  Was it purely a run of "bad luck" - which would seem unlikely, based on how long they were so good, to suddenly have a downturn, which was then corrected by a new coach.  Was UST temporarily snagging a number of guys who might have historically gone to SJU?

I think the recruiting tactics towards the end of the Gag era just did not have the same effectiveness and prestige that it used to, highschool prospects began looking for more flash and style and I think they were lagging on that. This new staff has kind of changed that culture but also kept the tradition important, recruiting has really picked up for them and they should be a force for years to come.

[sowilson]

I'll throw in a different take.  Many programs have freshman and sophomore skill players getting minutes on varsity.  For the strength athletes (o/d line, lb, te, etc) they usually don't see much playing time until their junior and senior years as coaches like to have them get bigger and stronger before being put out there.  So one way to see where a team may be headed in a couple of years is to take a look at their JV squads.  From last year, comparing GAC, BU, SJU, Concordia,  it looks like BU has a very good crop of strength athletes coming up, SJU next, GAC (their squad was just behind one of SJU's JV squads and much better than the other), and then Concordia.  I have to idea how this will play out this year in the varsity squads but I wouldn't be surprised if BU ends up 2nd, SJU 3rd, GAC 4th, and Concordia 5th.  As for UST, they have a great product to sell to recruits - top notch facilities, S&C coaching, and a D1 locker room, even if their financial aid package is lacking compared to the others.  I hear that SJU ran out of lockers last year and had to build more (they only had 185).  My concern is that they might not be staffed up to properly handle 200+ players.  My player chose GAC over SJU, even though it was slightly more expensive, in that he thought he would be lost in that team.

[HansenRatings]

I'll throw in a different take.  Many programs have freshman and sophomore skill players getting minutes on varsity.  For the strength athletes (o/d line, lb, te, etc) they usually don't see much playing time until their junior and senior years as coaches like to have them get bigger and stronger before being put out there.  So one way to see where a team may be headed in a couple of years is to take a look at their JV squads.  From last year, comparing GAC, BU, SJU, Concordia,  it looks like BU has a very good crop of strength athletes coming up, SJU next, GAC (their squad was just behind one of SJU's JV squads and much better than the other), and then Concordia.  I have to idea how this will play out this year in the varsity squads but I wouldn't be surprised if BU ends up 2nd, SJU 3rd, GAC 4th, and Concordia 5th.  As for UST, they have a great product to sell to recruits - top notch facilities, S&C coaching, and a D1 locker room, even if their financial aid package is lacking compared to the others.  I hear that SJU ran out of lockers last year and had to build more (they only had 185).  My concern is that they might not be staffed up to properly handle 200+ players.  My player chose GAC over SJU, even though it was slightly more expensive, in that he thought he would be lost in that team.

Interesting take, and I mostly agree, but I would add the caveat that JV squads probably don't project out very well for option squads like Concordia. The development for option teams has a more to do with getting the system in sync than developing physically.

[DuffMan]

I hear that SJU ran out of lockers last year and had to build more (they only had 185).  My concern is that they might not be staffed up to properly handle 200+ players.

SJU has been dealing with this since before my time there (early 2000s).  It's a non-issue.

[57Johnnie]

I hear that SJU ran out of lockers last year and had to build more (they only had 185).  My concern is that they might not be staffed up to properly handle 200+ players.

SJU has been dealing with this since before my time there (early 2000s).  It's a non-issue.

+k for a post short enough for me to read. 

[HansenRatings]

Unrelated - Did anyone else take any hail damage on the 11th?  Our house got whacked.  2/4 sides of the house look like that, lost 7 windows, deck looks like it was sand blasted, a/c compressor ruined, and a few other smaller items all to be charged to our insurance.

A friend of mine is an insurance adjuster that goes all over the midwest, and he's sent me some photos yesterday that look a lot like that. Almost like a drive-by shooting on every side of the house. I hope everything's covered for you, that's a lot of damage all at once.

[Greggers]

I'll throw in a different take.  Many programs have freshman and sophomore skill players getting minutes on varsity.  For the strength athletes (o/d line, lb, te, etc) they usually don't see much playing time until their junior and senior years as coaches like to have them get bigger and stronger before being put out there.  So one way to see where a team may be headed in a couple of years is to take a look at their JV squads.  From last year, comparing GAC, BU, SJU, Concordia,  it looks like BU has a very good crop of strength athletes coming up, SJU next, GAC (their squad was just behind one of SJU's JV squads and much better than the other), and then Concordia.  I have to idea how this will play out this year in the varsity squads but I wouldn't be surprised if BU ends up 2nd, SJU 3rd, GAC 4th, and Concordia 5th.  As for UST, they have a great product to sell to recruits - top notch facilities, S&C coaching, and a D1 locker room, even if their financial aid package is lacking compared to the others.  I hear that SJU ran out of lockers last year and had to build more (they only had 185).  My concern is that they might not be staffed up to properly handle 200+ players.  My player chose GAC over SJU, even though it was slightly more expensive, in that he thought he would be lost in that team.

I just don't see BU overtaking SJU soon, the talent level SJU has recruited trumps that of BU of late and SJU seems to be opening up some more doors with talented out of state recruits and transfers. BU was somewhat competitive in the game last year with a beat up Saint John's team breaking in a new QB.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Unrelated - Did anyone else take any hail damage on the 11th?  Our house got whacked.  2/4 sides of the house look like that, lost 7 windows, deck looks like it was sand blasted, a/c compressor ruined, and a few other smaller items all to be charged to our insurance.

A friend of mine is an insurance adjuster that goes all over the midwest, and he's sent me some photos yesterday that look a lot like that. Almost like a drive-by shooting on every side of the house. I hope everything's covered for you, that's a lot of damage all at once.

Yes, pretty much every west facing side of all of the homes in our development looks like this.  It was insanely loud, and several neighbors even ended up with hail and broken glass that came all the way in. (ours only broke the exterior pane on the windows that broke).

Our contractor is meeting with the adjuster on Monday.  He was pretty confident that it would be an easy process, and that when there are massive events like this, things tend to get pretty easily approved, as there isn't much to debate, and the insurers are just wanting to swallow the loss all at once, rather than have it drag into multiple financial quarters.

Hoping he's right!  Not how I would prefer to spend $1500 (our deductible), but I certainly don't have the $50-$60K of cash on hand that he thinks it'll end up totaling up to.

[GoldandBlueBU]

I'll throw in a different take.  Many programs have freshman and sophomore skill players getting minutes on varsity.  For the strength athletes (o/d line, lb, te, etc) they usually don't see much playing time until their junior and senior years as coaches like to have them get bigger and stronger before being put out there.  So one way to see where a team may be headed in a couple of years is to take a look at their JV squads.  From last year, comparing GAC, BU, SJU, Concordia,  it looks like BU has a very good crop of strength athletes coming up, SJU next, GAC (their squad was just behind one of SJU's JV squads and much better than the other), and then Concordia.  I have to idea how this will play out this year in the varsity squads but I wouldn't be surprised if BU ends up 2nd, SJU 3rd, GAC 4th, and Concordia 5th.  As for UST, they have a great product to sell to recruits - top notch facilities, S&C coaching, and a D1 locker room, even if their financial aid package is lacking compared to the others.  I hear that SJU ran out of lockers last year and had to build more (they only had 185).  My concern is that they might not be staffed up to properly handle 200+ players.  My player chose GAC over SJU, even though it was slightly more expensive, in that he thought he would be lost in that team.

I just don't see BU overtaking SJU soon, the talent level SJU has recruited trumps that of BU of late and SJU seems to be opening up some more doors with talented out of state recruits and transfers. BU was somewhat competitive in the game last year with a beat up Saint John's team breaking in a new QB.

No, overall, I definitely agree.  I think the long term mold of SJU / UST battling out #1 and #2 is going to be in place for years and years to come.  I think BU will end up continuing their trend since the early 2000's of getting the right group of guys together every 4-6 years or so in order to make a push into the top two spots for a couple of seasons, and temporarily displacing UST or SJU, but they don't quite seem to have the recruiting consistency to stay there.

[Mr.MIAC]

What's the feel from the non-SJU crowd on the Johnnie's recent string of title-contenders? Is it a result of the new coaching staff completely turning around the whole program and they're the #1 or #2 team in the conference every year, or did they just have a few absolute horses the last few years that are going to be hard to replace? It wasn't that long ago they finished 5th in my final MIAC ratings:

Now that SJU has recovered and is back in the 1 or 2 position the past few years, and likely to be #1 or #2 this year, I'd actually be more interested in hearing from the SJU crowd on what went wrong right at the end of the Gags era?  Did their recruiting (or lack of it) based on reputation just stop working with the current generation of athletes?  Was it purely a run of "bad luck" - which would seem unlikely, based on how long they were so good, to suddenly have a downturn, which was then corrected by a new coach.  Was UST temporarily snagging a number of guys who might have historically gone to SJU?

I think there were a few factors at play: 1) the Gags era was obviously coming to a close and this brought the stability of SJU's football program into question; 2) UST football was clearly on the rise with a young coach and top-notch facilities, drawing players away from SJU; and 3) UST offered a lot of advantages for players not looking to make football a profession (nearly all of them). In other words, with SJU you could have joined a program that was seemingly on the decline and not found much in the way of professional opportunities off campus. At UST, you could have joined a football program on the rise and enjoyed a broad range of academic opportunities. Plus off campus you had all sorts of internship opportunities and corporate wining and dining networking events (both leading to a job after undergrad), and all the cultural offerings of the Twin Cities.

[OldAuggie]

Today at my office a middle aged Tommie told me that Augsburg was not a MIAC school but actually a public school due to it's location. I am not sure which is more alarming; the perception of my school or the lack of common sense by the Tommie. Wow. 

[Greggers]

What's the feel from the non-SJU crowd on the Johnnie's recent string of title-contenders? Is it a result of the new coaching staff completely turning around the whole program and they're the #1 or #2 team in the conference every year, or did they just have a few absolute horses the last few years that are going to be hard to replace? It wasn't that long ago they finished 5th in my final MIAC ratings:

Now that SJU has recovered and is back in the 1 or 2 position the past few years, and likely to be #1 or #2 this year, I'd actually be more interested in hearing from the SJU crowd on what went wrong right at the end of the Gags era?  Did their recruiting (or lack of it) based on reputation just stop working with the current generation of athletes?  Was it purely a run of "bad luck" - which would seem unlikely, based on how long they were so good, to suddenly have a downturn, which was then corrected by a new coach.  Was UST temporarily snagging a number of guys who might have historically gone to SJU?

I think there were a few factors at play: 1) the Gags era was obviously coming to a close and this brought the stability of SJU's football program into question; 2) UST football was clearly on the rise with a young coach and top-notch facilities, drawing players away from SJU; and 3) UST offered a lot of advantages for players not looking to make football a profession (nearly all of them). In other words, with SJU you could have joined a program that was seemingly on the decline and not found much in the way of professional opportunities off campus. At UST, you could have joined a football program on the rise and enjoyed a broad range of academic opportunities. Plus off campus you had all sorts of internship opportunities and corporate wining and dining networking events (both leading to a job after undergrad), and all the cultural offerings of the Twin Cities.

Well this wasn't a very educated post, I'm not sure how much research you've down on the two schools but in two recent studies, one being Forbes top colleges St. John's is ranked in the top 150, where as St. Thomas was almost ranked 100 spots behind them, and this is not based solely on financial aid. Secondly another study came out about the top earning graduates in each state, St. John's also topped that list to represent Minnesota. There are other articles and studies that back this up. The idea that St. Thomas is a superior school academically is far from the truth.

[DuffMan]

Well this wasn't a very educated post...

Give him a break; he's a purported U$T graduate.

[Mr.MIAC]

What's the feel from the non-SJU crowd on the Johnnie's recent string of title-contenders? Is it a result of the new coaching staff completely turning around the whole program and they're the #1 or #2 team in the conference every year, or did they just have a few absolute horses the last few years that are going to be hard to replace? It wasn't that long ago they finished 5th in my final MIAC ratings:

Now that SJU has recovered and is back in the 1 or 2 position the past few years, and likely to be #1 or #2 this year, I'd actually be more interested in hearing from the SJU crowd on what went wrong right at the end of the Gags era?  Did their recruiting (or lack of it) based on reputation just stop working with the current generation of athletes?  Was it purely a run of "bad luck" - which would seem unlikely, based on how long they were so good, to suddenly have a downturn, which was then corrected by a new coach.  Was UST temporarily snagging a number of guys who might have historically gone to SJU?

I think there were a few factors at play: 1) the Gags era was obviously coming to a close and this brought the stability of SJU's football program into question; 2) UST football was clearly on the rise with a young coach and top-notch facilities, drawing players away from SJU; and 3) UST offered a lot of advantages for players not looking to make football a profession (nearly all of them). In other words, with SJU you could have joined a program that was seemingly on the decline and not found much in the way of professional opportunities off campus. At UST, you could have joined a football program on the rise and enjoyed a broad range of academic opportunities. Plus off campus you had all sorts of internship opportunities and corporate wining and dining networking events (both leading to a job after undergrad), and all the cultural offerings of the Twin Cities.

Well this wasn't a very educated post, I'm not sure how much research you've down on the two schools but in two recent studies, one being Forbes top colleges St. John's is ranked in the top 150, where as St. Thomas was almost ranked 100 spots behind them, and this is not based solely on financial aid. Secondly another study came out about the top earning graduates in each state, St. John's also topped that list to represent Minnesota. There are other articles and studies that back this up. The idea that St. Thomas is a superior school academically is far from the truth.

Well, there are all sorts of rankings that come to various conclusions based on select criteria. You won't often find UST and SJU in the same rankings because the institutions are classified differently. SJU is a liberal arts college and UST is a national university. SJU does tend to come out ahead of other MN institutions in top earning graduates, just ahead of UST. However, that's largely due to the fact that it's an all male institution. Going back to my post, I don't think the fact that UST offers a broader range of academic opportunities than SJU is up for debate. UST has a law school, a business school, and other graduate faculties that offer undergraduates academic and extracurricular opportunities. Plus, under the ACTC program, UST students can take courses at Macalester, Hamline, etc.

[sjusection105]

What's the feel from the non-SJU crowd on the Johnnie's recent string of title-contenders? Is it a result of the new coaching staff completely turning around the whole program and they're the #1 or #2 team in the conference every year, or did they just have a few absolute horses the last few years that are going to be hard to replace? It wasn't that long ago they finished 5th in my final MIAC ratings:

Now that SJU has recovered and is back in the 1 or 2 position the past few years, and likely to be #1 or #2 this year, I'd actually be more interested in hearing from the SJU crowd on what went wrong right at the end of the Gags era?  Did their recruiting (or lack of it) based on reputation just stop working with the current generation of athletes?  Was it purely a run of "bad luck" - which would seem unlikely, based on how long they were so good, to suddenly have a downturn, which was then corrected by a new coach.  Was UST temporarily snagging a number of guys who might have historically gone to SJU?

I think there were a few factors at play: 1) the Gags era was obviously coming to a close and this brought the stability of SJU's football program into question; 2) UST football was clearly on the rise with a young coach and top-notch facilities, drawing players away from SJU; and 3) UST offered a lot of advantages for players not looking to make football a profession (nearly all of them). In other words, with SJU you could have joined a program that was seemingly on the decline and not found much in the way of professional opportunities off campus. At UST, you could have joined a football program on the rise and enjoyed a broad range of academic opportunities. Plus off campus you had all sorts of internship opportunities and corporate wining and dining networking events (both leading to a job after undergrad), and all the cultural offerings of the Twin Cities.

In the end, you still have to go through life as a Tommie......